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You know how it goes.

Local guy listed a Smith snubbie.

Noticed it had a flat latch.

Some hooplehead had refin'ed it with Cerakote.

Someone tried removing it and gave up.

I learned to polish and spent about 8 hours taking it back to the nickle (without removing the nickle...that's a real trick).

Seller says he'll give me the original stocks, too.

1955 Chief's Special Lightweight

(rollmarks are crisp, that's the glare)

Wow! Great find and great work. Some people just do not have the love for the finer things of life.

Very nice little Smith!

Enjoy.........

Nice work on a sweet little gun.

Very nice! The only thing that makes a gun like that any better is being nickel finish, and it is! Congrats on a great acquisition. Oh, and I hate you just a little bit. :) j/k

Did someone say flatlatch?

Congrats!

You've got a beauty there!

Envying you right now! Congrats on such a sweet find.

Reclaiming and restoring a Smith to its original glory, plus the good buy, is a great feeling. You deserve to enjoy it.

Nice find and even better work getting it back in shape. Any chance you took a before picture?

mojo84 wrote:Nice find and even better work getting it back in shape. Any chance you took a before picture?

thanks

(notice it's inside the trigger guard, too)

Beauty!!

doc540 wrote:I learned to polish and spent about 8 hours taking it back to the nickle (without removing the nickle...that's a real trick).

Care to share the How-to?

RoyGBiv wrote:Beauty!!

doc540 wrote:I learned to polish and spent about 8 hours taking it back to the nickle (without removing the nickle...that's a real trick).

Care to share the How-to?

Thanks

I hesitate to post this because it is SO easy to go too deep and into the bare metal.

Here ya go:

LIGHT, SLOW AND EASY

That's the rule. Do NOT get frustrated and in a hurry.

For the large flat areas and cylinder I used a buffing wheel on my bench grinder with RED rouge.

Light and easy a little at a time. EXTRA CARE ON THE ROLL MARKS

Then used a Dremel with a felt disc for hard to reach areas, again with red rouge.

It's SLOW going.

Final polish by hand with blue Flitz. (Ignore the Mother's polish in the pic, I didn't end up using it.)

Two coats of Renaissance wax.

Did I say go "LIGHT, SLOW AND EASY"? ;)



Hope this helps.

Doc, doc, doc....... You just can't leave the snubbies alone, can you? I'm sure there is a Snubbies Anonymous 12 step group around for guys like you who've got it real bad.

The Annoyed Man wrote:Doc, doc, doc....... You just can't leave the snubbies alone, can you? I'm sure there is a Snubbies Anonymous 12 step group around for guys like you who've got it real bad.

and in my pocket!